Several social media users are claiming that US President Donald Trump, who was recently discharged from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, after testing positive for COVID-19, has said that the doctors hadn’t seen any body kill coronavirus the way his did.
However, the tweet that is being shared to claim the same is a fake one. Further, Trump’s video that is also being used to claim the same does not make any mention of the aforementioned.
CLAIM
Users have shared screenshot of a tweet allegedly shared by Trump mentioning that when the doctors tested his DNA, they said that it wasn’t DNA but USA.
“They said if Joe Biden had the virus he would have died several times by now. They said there is no way anyone with a body like mine could lose an election. I'm gonna win HUGE (sic),” a portion of the tweet reads.
A screenshot of a video is also being shared on Twitter and Facebook with a text over it that mentions similar information as that of the aforementioned tweet.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We found several red flags which suggest that the tweet in question is fake.
1. TWEET’S TEXT EXCEEDS CHARACTER LIMIT
We typed out the exact text mentioned in the tweet in circulation and found that this text cannot be tweeted as it exceeds Twitter’s character limit of 280 characters.
2. TOO MUCH GAP BETWEEN BLUE SYMBOL AND TRUMP’S NAME
Further, we found that the gap between the blue ‘verified’ symbol and Trump’s name is much more than the actual gap seen on desktop and TweetDeck view.
We also compared the fake tweet with an actual tweet shared by Trump, seen on a mobile phone, and found that the gap between the blue symbol and Trump’s name is much more in the viral image.
VIRAL SCREENSHOT OF TRUMP’S VIDEO
We found that Trump had shared a video on 4 October in which he thanked medical professionals at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and said that he was doing well.
“I came here wasn’t feeling so well. I feel much better now. We’re working hard to get me all the way back. I have to be back because we still have to make America great again,” he said.
However, in the entire video, he made no reference to doctors stating that they had never seen a body kill coronavirus like his and that his DNA wasn’t DNA, but USA.
Further, a website called Factbase that has the archived content of Trump’s tweets and his speeches, does not yield any result similar to the viral text, mentioned fact-checking website Politifact.
The only recent mention of DNA in Trump’s speeches could be traced back to January.
Further, the tweet does not appear on ProPublica’s 'Politwoops' archive, which maintains deleted tweets of public officials, mentioned a Reuters report.
Evidently, a quote is being falsely attributed to Donald Trump regarding his health after he was infected with the coronavirus.
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